A Melody Maker review of Autechre’s debut live performance at Quirky (Vox Club) on 20.11.94. Locust (Mark Van Hoen) who performed the same night is also mentioned. This is not the gig featured in the recently unearthed video. Reload (Global Communication), Fluke and Drum Club were also on the bill.

Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner was a regular Quirky performer and attendee. He has just unearthed some old flyers from 1994 which he uploaded on to the newly set up Facebook group for the now mythical club night. The Prototype 21 designs feature line-ups with Bruce Gilbert (Wire/Dome/Cupol etc), Pan Sonic/Sahko Records, Bark Psychosis and Aphex Twin/Rephlex Records.

At long last footage has emerged from Quirky, the club night I helped DJ and book acts at together with James Bignell in the mid 90s. It took place at Brixton’s long gone Vox venue and was also essentially the catalyst for my Zurich project together with Joe Gray, Neil Halstead and Sarah Peacock.

CD & Digital version of the Zurich collaborative album, coming Fall 2014 in the states. CD available Jan 21 2015 in Europe.

Zurich began as a 1994 musical partnership between Neil Halstead then of Slowdive and Tony F Wilson. The two recorded a handful of tracks together at a time when Wilson was co-promoting and DJing at the club/live night Quirky in South London, where he booked acts including Pan Sonic, Hafler Trio and Autechre. Halstead was shortly to begin work on Slowdive’s final and most experimental album Pygmalion. Recorded at a time when the popularity of ambient techno was at its peak, these recordings are remarkably austere by comparison. Whilst A Harsh Truth displays the Oriental gracefulness of a Sakamoto/Sylvian collaboration, Tzarist’s gothic industrialism shares more in common with the early works of Coil. Following the release of Pygmalion and Creation letting go of Slowdive, Halstead would disband Slowdive and abandon sound experimentation to create more song-based material in Mojave 3. Shortly thereafter, Wilson began collaborating with drum & bass producer and engineer Joe Gray on more rhythm based, yet still atmospheric productions. Too Scared to Breath features the voice of Seefeel’s Sarah Peacock and sounds not unlike prime Autechre and Aphex. Militia (Dynamic Warfare) on the other hand mirrors the post-metal Dub of Techno Animal and Scorn. All of the recordings were lost until very recently when Touch and Mego recording artist Mark Van Hoen found the tracks on old CD-Rs and cassettes he was given some years ago by Wilson.

2010 Necessary album Voldsløkka now streaming/available to download on Bandcamp. Files from original Necessary jam sessions in Oslo were sent to Justin K. Broadrick to do with as he pleased. The end result should appeal to fans of Broadrick’s work with Techno Animal, ICE, JK Flesh and Pale Sketcher. My contribution to this release was turntablist effects and the lyrics to Slukker Lyset.